Hazelnut's Darkest Hour
by sevens1997
Summary: Hazelnut gets a dose of impending doom, but it is much more serious than Pepper Ann's paranoia after the pseudo-earthquake.
1. The News

Chapter 1: The News  
  
It started like any other day: school, work, and detention for Pepper Ann. However, by the end of the day, all of Hazelnut would drop what they are doing and panic in the streets. That evening's news had everyone shaking in their Air Fuzzies.  
  
"This is Sherry Spleen reporting from Town Hall in Central Hazelnut, where the mayor is about to make what he described as 'an earth-shattering announcement.' We can only speculate on what it might be, and - oh, wait. Here he comes now."  
  
The mayor of Hazelnut stepped on the stage that had been set up, grabbed the microphone, and began his speech. "Citizens of Hazelnut, by now you must be wondering what the construction in Lupkin Park is all about. Well, now is the time to tell you that it serves as a giant bomb shelter. Scientists have discovered that there is a meteor approximately four miles in diameter hurtling toward Earth, and its trajectory is sending it directly to this very town. What this meteor does not crush, the radiation will destroy. However, there is no need to fear..."  
  
No one bothered to listen to the rest of the announcement. They were all too busy running around in abject terror. Pepper Ann and her little sister, Moose, were shivering underneath their beds. Their mother, Lydia, had already joined the horrified crowd in the streets.  
  
Pepper Ann's two best friends, Milo and Nicky, were playing Antitrust with Nicky's parents when they heard the news. Milo hid in the bathroom, Nicky rushed to her bedroom, and Mr. and Mrs. Little made a beeline for the basement. Once Nicky had reminded herself that there was a shelter and regained her composure, she called Pepper Ann.  
  
When Pepper Ann heard the phone ring, she banged her head on the underside of the bed. "Ouch!" Fortunately, she could reach the phone from where she was, so she carefully picked it up. "H-H-Hello?"  
  
"You've heard the news, too, huh? Don't panic, not yet. We still don't know how long we have, and I decided that since the announcement was so big, I had to get it on tape. If you're frozen with fear, I can come over there. Either way, we can watch what we missed together."  
  
Five minutes later, Nicky knocked on Pepper Ann's bedroom door. No answer. She tried to open it. Locked. "Fuzzy!" After pounding on the door several times, she screamed, "Pepper Ann, it's just me! Nicky!"  
  
Knowing that she had a friend nearby, Pepper Ann found the courage to crawl out from under her bed and open the door. She couldn't say a word.  
  
Nicky waved her hand in front of Pepper Ann's face. Nothing. Acupressure wasn't going to work this time, either. This was too serious. She snapped her fingers where she had waved her hand. Still nothing. As a last resort, she reared back and slapped Pepper Ann square in the face.  
  
That got her going. "Nicky! You got the tape? Great! Let's see what we missed."  
  
They advanced the tape to where they had cut the mayor off. "However, there is no need to fear. The meteor will not hit for another four weeks, and the shelter is constructed of reinforced titanium. There is no way any fragment of this meteor or radiation is getting through the walls of this thing, so we'll be here to rebuild. I'm afraid that's the best we can do. You have been warned."  
  
After hearing this, Pepper Ann calmed down somewhat. "I'm all right. You know, this reminds me of the time Principal Hickey told me that nothing short of Armageddon would get him to close school. Well, here it is, at least for this town. I guess we're not going to school tomorrow." They got a chuckle out of that comment, but it didn't last long.  
  
"Milo's probably still in my parents' bathroom. Let's see if we can pry him out."  
  
"I don't know, Nicky. I don't think I should leave this house."  
  
"Come on, Pepper Ann. Milo needs both of us. Besides, it's not like this rock is going to hit while we're on our way there."  
  
Reluctantly, Pepper Ann said, "All right."  
  
It took forty-five minutes for them to get through the crowd and reach Nicky's house. Sure enough, Milo was still barricaded in the bathroom. Nicky knocked on the door and said, "Milo? Come on out."  
  
Pepper Ann decided that Milo needed to hear her voice. "Milo, if I can crawl out from under my bed, you can sure as Fuzzy come out of there."  
  
"PA?" He opened the door. Comforted by the sight of his two best friends, he stepped across the threshold and into the hallway. Almost immediately, the three of them went into a group hug. After he heard the whole story, he said, "So what are we going to do?"  
  
Nicky wished she could give a favorable answer to that question. "All we can do is hide in the shelter - and hope."  
  
That was when Pepper Ann remembered her little sister. "I've got to find Moose! Hold on, I'll be right back!" She didn't have her blades on, so she had to run. When she got home, she was winded, but still managed to call her sister out. "Moose!"  
  
"Peppie? Where are you?"  
  
"I'm in the living room. Come on out. There's a gathering at Nicky's house, and you shouldn't be alone at a time like this."  
  
Moose slowly emerged from her hiding place. When she saw her older sister, she hugged her.  
  
"Don't worry, Moose. I'm with you all the way."  
  
Together, they went to Nicky's. By this time, the streets were cleared out, so it didn't take very long to get there. When they arrived, Pepper Ann called her father, Chuck.  
  
Chuck had been flying his blimp all day and had not heard the news. When he heard his daughter's shaky voice, he started to worry. "Peppie, what's wrong?"  
  
Pepper Ann told him about the news and where she was. "Good gravy! I'll be there as soon as I can." He was there in thirty minutes. As friends and family members huddled around, they wondered what would become of their beloved town.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	2. The Wait

Chapter 2: The Wait  
  
For the next four weeks, fifteen thousand people agonized over what will surely be the end of Hazelnut, where a good number of them have lived their entire lives. Two such people were Pepper Ann's grandparents, Leo and Lillian Lilly. The news struck them especially hard, and neither one of them had left their house since they heard it. Pepper Ann had tried to call them several times over the past week, but got no answer. At the end of that first week, she decided that enough was enough.  
  
"That's it! I'm getting Grandma and Grandpa!" Before anyone could stop her, she stormed out of Nicky's house and ran like the devil to her grandparents. When she got there, she found out that the reason why they hadn't answered the phone was because they were afraid of whom it might be and what they would have to say.  
  
Relieved that nothing had happened to them, Pepper Ann wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her hand. Then she realized that she had to find a way to get them out of there. Nicky's approach would be too forceful. Merely snapping her fingers wouldn't be enough. At that point, an idea popped into her head. It's crazy, but if it works, we'll be home free, at least for the time being, she thought. She simply said, "Come on, we've got to get out of here." That wasn't quite enough. "You want to get to that shelter, don't you?" They immediately snapped to attention. "Success! Let's go!"  
  
Pepper Ann returned to Nicky's with grandparents in tow. Lydia had arrived while Pepper Ann was gone, and she was worried sick. When her daughter arrived, Lydia squeezed her as hard as she could, with tears streaming from her eyes. "Peppie! There you are! Mom! Dad!" Lydia took it easy on her parents. They were more fragile than Pepper Ann, after all.  
  
Under normal circumstances, Pepper Ann would have been embarrassed beyond recovery by her mother's outburst. Of course, the circumstances surrounding this situation were anything but normal, so she didn't really care.  
  
Since Pepper Ann, Milo, and Nicky had been hiding out for the first week, school was obviously closed, just as Pepper Ann predicted. However, no one was laughing now. They were all too busy shaking.  
  
It wasn't the threat of the total destruction of Hazelnut that convinced Principal Hickey to close school. That alone never would have stopped him (he said Armageddon, not the mere thought of it). It was closed because teachers threatened to quit en masse if it wasn't. The fact that they had nothing to lose gave them the leverage, and Hazelnut Middle School was shut down. The only reason Hickey hadn't left his house is because the teachers beat him to the punch by causing his phone to ring incessantly and delivering their ultimatum that way.  
  
By the end of the third week, the waiting had become downright maddening. Hair that had been pulled out of heads was lying on the floor, fingernails had been bitten down, people were on the verge of snapping, and this was just at Nicky's.  
  
Gwen Mezzrow was cooped up at Dieter's (which would have been a lot more fun for her had disaster not decided to strike), and her braids had been standing on end the whole time. Tessa and Vanessa were cuddling each other, as usual, but this time it was out of fear rather than love. Trinket and Cissy were stuck (as they put it) with Pink-Eye Pete, which scared them almost as much as the impending cataclysm.  
  
The rest of the students of Hazelnut Middle School were in their own houses, with the exception of Craig Bean. In a cruel twist of fate, he wound up at Pepper Ann's house. Even worse, he was there when Pepper Ann picked up Moose, but neither one of them had seen him, nor did he see them. In this way, the fear was a blessing because it prevented the thought from crossing her mind. If she had known, she probably wouldn't have made it through the fourth and final week.  
  
Anyone who has faced disaster knows how difficult it can be to come to grips with it. However, when one is given no choice, it becomes somewhat easier. Like the mayor said, the shelter was the best they could do, and on the day before the meteor was scheduled to hit, everyone in town resigned themselves to the fact that tomorrow, Hazelnut would be no more. Tears fell, hugs were exchanged, and a few even found inner peace within themselves. This was the final judgment for their town, and everyone had known it for the past month. Now, they all accepted it.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	3. Doomsday

Chapter 3: Doomsday  
  
Very few people in Hazelnut could sleep that night, and the ones who could were constantly haunted by nightmares. Milo dreamed that he was the only one in town who had not made it into the shelter, and no one had noticed since the crowd was so big. Even worse, Pepper Ann and Nicky swore up and down that they saw Milo go in with them, but since it was filled to capacity, they couldn't stand next to each other. Just as the radiation from the meteor was about to vaporize him, he woke up screaming.  
  
As frightening as Milo's dream was, Nicky's took the cake. In her dream, everyone in town had made it into the shelter, but it wasn't nearly as strong as the mayor had told them. As the meteor approached, the radiation caused the shelter to start melting. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they would be turned to dust. The instant before they became ashes, she woke up in a cold sweat.  
  
It was four in the morning. Pepper Ann, incredulous, asked a question she had been dying to ask. "How in the name of Astro-Fuzzy can you two sleep when we're about to be squashed by a giant rock?"  
  
"PA, trust me when I say this. Right now, I wish I were an insomniac, like you. Sure, I've been able to sleep, but 'peaceful' is not a word I would use to describe it. 'Restless' is more like it."  
  
Nicky echoed Milo's sentiments. "If I could stay awake, I would. Unfortunately, I so used to going to sleep at nine that it's become automatic. It's only an hour earlier than I usually get up, but like Milo, I have been hurt more than helped by sleep."  
  
Without realizing it, the three closest friends in all of Hazelnut proper had come together in a group hug, shivering and sweating. There was no one else in that particular room, so they tried to soothe each other even after they noticed. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days as they anxiously awaited their town's final moment.  
  
At seven, the three of them were called to the television to watch the news. Sherry Spleen was on location, much to the amazement of everyone within the confines of Nicky's house. The report was no different than the one of four weeks ago, except that it was determined that the meteor would strike in approximately twelve hours. The mayor urged everyone to file into the shelter immediately. No one second-guessed him, and the shelter was nearly filled to capacity by ten. Nine hours to go.  
  
During those nine hours, everyone decided whether they would move or stay and help rebuild. Defying human nature (especially in this day and age), very few of them wanted to leave. Almost everyone vowed to stick around and assist in what they knew would be a Herculean task. At six o'clock that afternoon, the countdown began. The end was near.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


	4. Aftermath

Chapter 4: Aftermath  
  
The countdown had come and gone, but no one heard a thing. No crash. No boom. Not even a pop. It was nine o'clock, so the meteor certainly would have hit by now, and they definitely would have noticed it. Bewildered, people wondered what was going on. Had they been tricked? That was quickly rejected due to the fact that if it were a fake, the town would not have gone to the trouble and expense of building a shelter. Then one thought hit everyone at the same time.  
  
Maybe that rock didn't hit us after all, they thought. The mere notion sent morale through the roof. Slowly, the mayor opened the door. Everything was exactly as they left it. Nary a thing was out of place.  
  
Relief swept over everyone in town, but it was tainted with curiosity. What had happened? That question would be answered in three days, when Gwen Mezzrow decided that she had recovered enough to try watching television. To her amazement, there was no picture. The sound was out, too.  
  
Word got around quickly. All television in Hazelnut was wiped out. There was a perfectly good explanation, but officials had to draw a crowd. That was not a problem. Once everyone had gathered, they offered their theory.  
  
"The only explanation we can come up with is that the meteor hit a satellite that supplies us with television, both knocking it out and throwing the meteor off course. Apparently, it missed the earth entirely."  
  
It made sense, so everyone swallowed it. No one cared because everything was back to normal, or at least it would be after a while. Not surprisingly, everyone slept easy that night.  
  
FIFTH AND FINAL CHAPTER COMING SOON! 


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue  
  
What had been the scariest episode ever in Hazelnut had become a running joke for several months. Pepper Ann sarcastically complained about not being able to watch 'Crazy Twin Shenanigans.' Milo remembered the fake earthquake and said, "This time I stay awake, and what happens? The darn thing gets thrown off course." Nicky told everyone in town that she would have been thrilled to actually see how big that rock was. Even Hazelnuts & Bolts had it's own section. Wayne McCabre wrote the article, putting his own humorous spin on it. Eventually, the joke had worn out it's welcome, and life went back to normal. The television was restored shortly thereafter. The last words about it were spoken by Trinket, of all people, and she echoed the sentiments of everyone in Hazelnut. "It may be just an ordinary town, but it's our ordinary town. Thank goodness we still have it."  
  
THE END 


End file.
